PRODUCTO-NO-MORE (Formerly ORPHAN-NO-MORE) Calf Claimer Powder, packaged in 9-oz. bottles, For Animal Use Only, Recall # V-011-2007CODEA07RECALLING FIRM/MANUFACTURERSpringer Magrath Co., McCook, NB, by telephone on January 11, 2007 and fax on January 12, 2007. Firm initiated recall is complete.REASONThe bovine blood meal which was used to manufacture the finished product was cross-contaminated with prohibited bovine meat and bone meal, and the finished product is not labeled with the cautionary statement that it should not be fed to ruminants.VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE300/9-oz. bottlesDISTRIBUTIONNEEND OF ENFORCEMENT REPORT FOR JANUARY 31, 2007

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http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/enforce/2007/ENF00989.html

seems to me the BBM i.e. bovine blood meal would be more of a risk factor for bovine TSE i.e. BASE OR BSE or any other strain, than the MBM i.e. meat and bone meal. considering the recent 4th documented case of transfusion related vCJD, i still think it is absolutely asinine to continue to use bovine blood in feed for any species. i wonder if it's still being used in pet foods??? course, we don't have mad cats FSE here in the USA either ;-)

8.45 In July 1988, Spillers stopped using bovine spleen in its products and replaced it with liver. At the same time, it changed its specification for ground bone to exclude the use of bovine heads and backbones with the intention of eliminating brains and spinal cord.

http://www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/ws/s168.pdf

8.47 In February 1989, the report of the Southwood Working Party stated that domestic pets could be susceptible to BSE, if the agent were to reach them 'in an adequate dose by an appropriate route'. However, the report also suggested that pets such as cats and dogs might not be able to acquire the infection orally and that the high temperatures used in the canning process might have destroyed any infectious agent present.

http://www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/ib/ibd1/tab02.pdf

8.48 By March 1989, it was reported that most companies manufacturing pet food were 'avoiding UK cattle nerve tissue, spleen and brains' in favour of sheep or poultry meat.

http://www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/report/volume13/chaptef3.htm#243064

18 January 2007 - Draft minutes of the SEAC 95 meeting (426 KB) held on 7December 2006 are now available.

snip...

ITEM 9 - ANY OTHER BUSINESS

snip...

64. A member noted that at the recent Neuroprion meeting, a study waspresented showing that in transgenic mice BSE passaged in sheep may be morevirulent and infectious to a wider range of species than bovine derived BSE. ...

http://www.seac.gov.uk/minutes/95.pdf

Instead of UK bovine material, it used poultry and porcine material or imported bovine material from outside the UK. Manufacturers had obtained materials from the US, Canada and Australasia,

http://www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/ws/s168.pdf

Other work presented suggested that BSE and bovine amyloidotic spongiformencephalopathy (BASE) MAY BE RELATED. A mutation had been identified in theprion protein gene in an AMERICAN BASE CASE THAT WAS SIMILAR IN NATURE TO AMUTATION FOUND IN CASES OF SPORADIC CJD.

Bovine Amyloid Spongiform Encephalopathy (BASE) is an atypical BSE straindiscovered recently in Italy, and similar or different atypical BSE caseswere also reported in other countries. The infectivity and phenotypes ofthese atypical BSE strains in humans are unknown. In collaboration withPierluigi Gambetti, as well as Maria Caramelli and her co-workers, we haveinoculated transgenic mice expressing human prion protein with brainhomogenates from BASE or BSE infected cattle. Our data shows that about halfof the BASE-inoculated mice became infected with an average incubation timeof about 19 months; in contrast, none of the BSE-inoculated mice appear tobe infected after more than 2 years.

***These results indicate that BASE is transmissible to humans and suggest that BASE is more virulent thanclassical BSE in humans.***

6:30 Close of Day One

http://www.healthtech.com/2007/tse/day1.asp

3.2.6 The Possibility That BSE-Infected Cattle Carry Infectivity in Their Blood

The base case assumes that cattle infected with BSE do not carry infectivity in their blood

(although emboli formation may result in blood contamination). We consider the possibility that

0.016% of the infectivity in an animal with BSE is carried in the blood, a value that is consistent

with the assumption that its concentration is at the level of detection in an animal with a fullblown

case of BSE (SSC, 2000a).

snip...

3.3.3 Domestic Scrapie

The transmission of scrapie from sheep to cattle is one of the primary hypotheses for the

origin of BSE (Horn et al., 2001). Moreover, scrapie is present in the United States. Although

no North American strain of scrapie has been successfully transmitted to cattle exposed orally to

the agent (Cutlip et al., 2001), we evaluate the impact of assuming that such transmission is

possible. In particular, if such transmission is possible, we estimate that the rendering of scrapieinfected

sheep could expose the U.S. cattle population to 1 cattle oral ID50 in feed each month.

The derivation of this estimate is based on the assumption that the number of cattle oral ID50s

administered to cattle is equal to the product of 1) the number of scrapie-infected sheep rendered

each year, 2) the number of sheep oral ID50s per infected animal, 3) the inverse of the cattle-sheep

species barrier, and 4) the proportion of infectivity sent to rendering that survives rendering and is

Statement on Texas Cow With Central Nervous System Symptoms On Friday, April 30 th , the Food and Drug Administration learned that a cow with central nervous system symptoms had been killed and shipped to a processor for rendering into animal protein for use in animal feed.

FDA, which is responsible for the safety of animal feed, immediately began an investigation. On Friday and throughout the weekend, FDA investigators inspected the slaughterhouse, the rendering facility, the farm where the animal came from, and the processor that initially received the cow from the slaughterhouse.

FDA's investigation showed that the animal in question had already been rendered into "meat and bone meal" (a type of protein animal feed). Over the weekend FDA was able to track down all the implicated material. That material is being held by the firm, which is cooperating fully with FDA.

Cattle with central nervous system symptoms are of particular interest because cattle with bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE, also known as "mad cow disease," can exhibit such symptoms. In this case, there is no way now to test for BSE. But even if the cow had BSE, FDA's animal feed rule would prohibit the feeding of its rendered protein to other ruminant animals (e.g., cows, goats, sheep, bison).

FDA is sending a letter to the firm summarizing its findings and informing the firm that FDA will not object to use of this material in swine feed only. If it is not used in swine feed, this material will be destroyed. Pigs have been shown not to be susceptible to BSE. If the firm agrees to use the material for swine feed only, FDA will track the material all the way through the supply chain from the processor to the farm to ensure that the feed is properly monitored and used only as feed for pigs.

To protect the U.S. against BSE, FDA works to keep certain mammalian protein out of animal feed for cattle and other ruminant animals. FDA established its animal feed rule in 1997 after the BSE epidemic in the U.K. showed that the disease spreads by feeding infected ruminant protein to cattle.

Under the current regulation, the material from this Texas cow is not allowed in feed for cattle or other ruminant animals. FDA's action specifying that the material go only into swine feed means also that it will not be fed to poultry.

FDA is committed to protecting the U.S. from BSE and collaborates closely with the U.S. Department of Agriculture on all BSE issues. The animal feed rule provides crucial protection against the spread of BSE, but it is only one of several such firewalls. FDA will soon be improving the animal feed rule, to make this strong system even stronger.

The USDA has made a statement, and we are referring all callers to the USDAweb site. We have no informationabout the animal being in Texas. CarlaAt09:44 AM 11/19/2004, you wrote:>Greetings Carla,>>i am gettingunsubstantiated claims of this BSE 'inconclusive' cow is from>TEXAS. can youcomment on this either way please?>>thank you,>Terry S. Singeltary Sr.>>======================================

our computer department was working on a place holder we could postUSDA'sannouncement of any results. There are no results to be announced tonightbyNVSL, so we are back in a waiting mode and will post the USDAannouncementwhen we hear something.At 06:05 PM 11/22/2004, you wrote:>whywas the announcement on your TAHC site removed?>>Bovine SpongiformEncephalopathy:>November 22: Press Release title here >>star image More BSEinformation>>>>terry>>Carla Everett wrote:>>>no confirmation on the U.S.'inconclusive test...>>no confirmation on location ofanimal.>>>>>>====================================================

THEN, 7+ MONTHS OF COVER-UP BY JOHANN ET AL! no doubt about it now $$$

NO, it's not pretty, hell, im not pretty, but these are the facts, take emor leave em, however, you cannot change them.

with kindest regards,

I am still sincerely disgusted and tired in sunny Bacliff, Texas USA 77518

Terry S. Singeltary Sr.

FULL 130 LASHINGS TO USDA BY OIG againhttp://www.usda.gov/oig/webdocs/50601-10-KC.pdf

12/10/76AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH COUNCILREPORT OF THE ADVISORY COMMITTE ON SCRAPIEOffice NoteCHAIRMAN: PROFESSOR PETER WILDY

snip...

A The Present Position with respect to ScrapieA] The Problem

Scrapie is a natural disease of sheep and goats. It is a slowand inexorably progressive degenerative disorder of the nervous systemand it ia fatal. It is enzootic in the United Kingdom but not in allcountries.

The field problem has been reviewed by a MAFF working group(ARC 35/77). It is difficult to assess the incidence in Britain fora variety of reasons but the disease causes serious financial loss;it is estimated that it cost Swaledale breeders alone $l.7 M duringthe five years 1971-1975. A further inestimable loss arises from theclosure of certain export markets, in particular those of the UnitedStates, to British sheep.

It is clear that scrapie in sheep is important commercially andfor that reason alone effective measures to control it should bedevised as quickly as possible.

Recently the question has again been brought up as to whetherscrapie is transmissible to man. This has followed reports that thedisease has been transmitted to primates. One particularly luridspeculation (Gajdusek 1977) conjectures that the agents of scrapie,kuru, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and transmissible encephalopathy ofmink are varieties of a single "virus". The U.S. Department ofAgriculture concluded that it could "no longer justify or permitscrapie-blood line and scrapie-exposed sheep and goats to be processedfor human or animal food at slaughter or rendering plants" (ARC 84/77)"The problem is emphasised by the finding that some strains of scrapieproduce lesions identical to the once which characterise the humandementias"

Whether true or not. the hypothesis that these agents might betransmissible to man raises two considerations. First, the safetyof laboratory personnel requires prompt attention. Second, actionsuch as the "scorched meat" policy of USDA makes the solution of theacrapie problem urgent if the sheep industry is not to suffergrievously.

snip...

76/10.12/4.6

http://www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/yb/1976/10/12004001.pdf

Subject: REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON SCRAPIE November 9, 2005 USAHADate: February 12, 2006 at 1:03 pm PST

The Committee met on November 9, 2005, from 8:00am until 11:55am, Hershey Lodge and Convention Center, Hershey, Pennsylvania. The meeting was called to order by Dr. Jim Logan, chair, with vice chairman Dr. Joe D. Ross attending. There were 74 people in attendance.

The Scrapie Program Update was provided by Dr. Diane Sutton, National Scrapie Program Coordinator, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services (APHIS), Veterinary Services (VS). The complete text of the Status Report is included in these Proceedings.

Dr. Patricia Meinhardt, USDA-APHIS-VS-National Veterinary Services Laboratory (NVSL) gave the Update on Genotyping Labs and Discrepancies in Results. NVSL conducts investigations into discrepancies on genotype testing results associated with the Scrapie Eradication Program. It is the policy of the Program to conduct a second genotype test at a second laboratory on certain individual animals. Occasionally, there are discrepancies in those results. The NVSL conducts follow-up on these situations through additional testing on additional samples from the field and archive samples from the testing laboratories.

For the period of time from January 1, 2005, until October 15, 2005, there were 23 instances of discrepancies in results from 35 flocks. Of those 23 instances, 14 were caused by laboratory error (paperwork or sample mix-up), 3 results from field error, 5 were not completely resolved, and 1 originated from the use of a non-approved laboratory for the first test. As a result of inconsistencies, one laboratory’s certification was revoked by APHIS-VS. ......

snip.......

Infected and Source Flocks

As of September 30, 2005, there were 105 scrapie infected and source flocks. There were a total of 165** new infected and source flocks reported for FY 2005. The total infected and source flocks that have been released in FY 2005 was 128. The ratio of infected and source flocks cleaned up or placed on clean up plans vs. new infected and source flocks discovered in FY 2005 was 1.03 : 1*. In addition 622 scrapie cases were confirmed and reported by the National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL) in FY 2005, of which 130 were RSSS cases. Fifteen cases of scrapie in goats have been reported since 1990. The last goat case was reported in May 2005. Approximately 5,626 animals were indemnified comprised of 49% non-registered sheep, 45% registered sheep, 1.4% non-registered goats and 4.6% registered goats.

Regulatory Scrapie Slaughter Surveillance (RSSS)

RSSS was designed to utilize the findings of the Center for Epidemiology and Animal Health (CEAH) Scrapie: Ovine Slaughter Surveillance (SOSS) study. The results of SOSS can be found at http://www.aphis.usda.gov/vs/ceah/cahm/Sheep/sheep.htm . RSSS started April 1,

2003. It is a targeted slaughter surveillance program which is designed to identify infected flocks for clean-up. During FY 2005 collections increased by 32% overall and by 90% for black and mottled faced sheep improving overall program effectiveness and efficiency as demonstrated by the 26% decrease in percent positive black faced sheep compared to FY 2004. Samples have been collected from 62,864 sheep since April 1, 2003, of which results have been reported for 59,105 of which 209 were confirmed positive. During FY 2005, 33,137 samples were collected from 81 plants. There have been 130 NVSL confirmed positive cases (30 collected in FY 2004 and confirmed in FY 2005 and 100 collected and confirmed in FY 2005) in FY 2005. Face colors of these positives were 114 black, 14 mottled, 1 white and 1 unknown. The percent positive by face color is shown in the chart below.

As of October 04, 2005, 103,580 sheep and goat premises have been assigned identification numbers in the Scrapie National Generic Database. Official eartags have been issued to 73,807 of these premises.

*This number based on an adjusted 12 month interval to accommodate the 60 day period for setting up flock plans.

Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease (CJD), a transmissible spongiformencephalopathy, is caused by prions composed of proteinaceous materialdevoid of nucleic acid. CJD occurs sporadically (generally 1case/1,000,000 population per year) in older patients (average age of65) and is characterized by rapidly progressive dementia, accompanied bysevere muscle spasms and incoordination. Death usually occurs within 3to 12 months (average 7 months). CJD activity in Texas, which has apopulation of nearly 19 million, appeared to be typical. The statewidedeath rate for 1995 and 1996 was just under 1/1,000,000. In April of1997, the Texas Department of Health became aware of an increased numberof possible CJD cases in a 23-county area of NE Texas with a populationof just over one million. After review of medical and pathology records,four patients were identified with definite classic CJD and three wereidentified with probable CJD. Dates of death for the eight patients werefrom April, 1996 through mid-July 1997. The patients were from 46through 65 years of age; four were male and three were female. Acase-control study to identify risks for CJD in NE Texas has been initiated.

http://www.jifsan.umd.edu/tse/Rawlings.htm

what i considered a cluster of CJD victims in southeast Texas,never got the attention of the TDH or CDC. it was just allsporadic CJDs of no importance...tss

18 January 2007 - Draft minutes of the SEAC 95 meeting (426 KB) held on 7December 2006 are now available.

snip...

Other work presented suggested that BSE and bovine amyloidotic spongiformencephalopathy (BASE) MAY BE RELATED. A mutation had been identified in theprion protein gene in an AMERICAN BASE CASE THAT WAS SIMILAR IN NATURE TO AMUTATION FOUND IN CASES OF SPORADIC CJD.

Bovine Amyloid Spongiform Encephalopathy (BASE) is an atypical BSE straindiscovered recently in Italy, and similar or different atypical BSE caseswere also reported in other countries. The infectivity and phenotypes ofthese atypical BSE strains in humans are unknown. In collaboration withPierluigi Gambetti, as well as Maria Caramelli and her co-workers, we haveinoculated transgenic mice expressing human prion protein with brainhomogenates from BASE or BSE infected cattle. Our data shows that about halfof the BASE-inoculated mice became infected with an average incubation timeof about 19 months; in contrast, none of the BSE-inoculated mice appear tobe infected after more than 2 years.

***These results indicate that BASE is transmissible to humans and suggest that BASE is more virulent thanclassical BSE in humans.***

There is a growing number of human CJD cases, and they were presented lastweek in San Francisco by Luigi Gambatti(?) from his CJD surveillancecollection.

He estimates that it may be up to 14 or 15 persons which display selectivelySPRPSC and practically no detected RPRPSC proteins.

http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/ac/06/transcripts/1006-4240t1.htm

http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/ac/06/transcripts/2006-4240t1.pdf

round and round we go, where we stop, nobody knows, GW knows thow, him and the OIE, they know it goes round and round i.e. BSE MRR policy. what goes around, comes around. and it will not be pretty. ...

p.s.

STATEMENTBYLESTER M. CRAWFORD, D.V.M., PH.D. DEPUTY COMMISSIONER OF FOOD AND DRUGSDEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICESBEFORETHE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE, NUTRITION, AND FORESTRY UNITED STATES SENATE

A suspected case of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) has recentlybeen diagnosed in a patient in the United Kingdom (UK), who received a bloodtransfusion from a donor who later developed vCJD [1]. This is the fourthcase of probable transfusion transmission of vCJD infection in the UK. Threeof the four recipients developed symptoms of vCJD.The first symptomatic case of vCJD associated with blood transfusion wasidentified in December 2003. This individual developed vCJD six and a halfyears after transfusion of red cells donated by an individual who developedsymptoms of vCJD three and a half years after donation.

A second case of vCJD 'infection' was identified a few months later in aperson who had received red cells from a donor who developed symptoms ofvCJD 18 months after donation. This patient (the second case) died fromcauses unrelated to vCJD five years after transfusion. Post-morteminvestigations found abnormal prion protein in the spleen and a cervicallymph node., However, prion protein was not found in the brain, and nopathological features of vCJD were found.

A third case developed symptoms of vCJD six years after receiving atransfusion of red blood cells, and died two years and eight months later.The donor of the blood involved developed vCJD about 20 months afterdonating it.

These three cases have been published as case reports and in the findings ofthe ongoing collaborative study between the National Blood Services, theNational CJD Surveillance Unit, and the Office for National Statistics. Thisstudy aims to collect evidence about transmission of CJD or vCJD via theblood supply [2,3,4,5].

The new, fourth case is in a patient who developed symptoms of vCJD eightand a half years after receiving a transfusion of red blood cells from adonor who developed vCJD about 17 months after this blood was donated [1].The donor to this case also donated the vCJD-implicated blood transfused tothe third case. As for all other reported clinical vCJD cases that have beentested for genotype, this patient is a methionine homozygote at codon 129 ofthe prion protein gene. The patient is currently alive.

All four cases had received transfusions of non-leucodepleted red bloodcells between 1996 and 1999. Since October 1999, leucocytes have beenremoved from all blood used for transfusion in the UK. The effect ofleucodepletion on the reduction of the risk of transmission of vCJD from aninfective donation is uncertain.

This fourth case of vCJD infection associated with blood transfusion furtherincreases the level of concern about the risk of vCJD transmission betweenhumans by blood transfusion, although much remains unknown. This reinforcesthe importance of the existing precautions that have been introduced toreduce the risk of transmission of vCJD infection by blood and bloodproducts [6]. No cases of vCJD have been associated with fractionated plasmaproducts. The small group of living recipients of vCJD-implicated bloodtransfusion in the UK have been informed of their potential exposure to vCJDby blood transfusion, asked to take certain precautions to reduce the riskof onward person-to-person transmission of vCJD during health care, andoffered specialist neurological evaluation and advice.